Xavier walked over to the wall of the Staging Room. He leant his back heavily against it, then he slid down to the ground. There were more notifications after the first one, but he was taking his time absorbing the first.

The System has transported you forward through the tower.

Your next floor will now be the 100th floor of the Tower of Champions.

You cannot receive any titles for the previous floors that were skipped.

That’s insane.

He shook his head.

Did the System really do this to him? How was that fair? His plan… his plan to become powerful was to gain all of the titles from the Tower of Champions that he could! And now? Now that had been taken away from him.

By the very System itself.

He was shaking. Shaking with the rage that he felt. He wanted to kill someone. Wanted to take his anger out on the very System itself.

Xavier took a breath. He couldn’t think like this. And right now, he needed to think. He couldn’t let his emotions take control of him, even if he wanted them to. He had to think. Had to think rationally. Else he wouldn’t be able to make any good decisions at all.

Else he’d get himself into more trouble than he was already in.

He didn’t want to let go of the anger he felt, however. The anger was righteous. He had a good reason for feeling this rage, didn’t he?

Why should he let go of it?

Xavier harnessed the power of his Meditation skill, breathing ever deeper, doing his best to focus on nothing more than his breath coming in and out. It took a little while, but he was able to manage it.

The rage and anger he felt started to bleed out of him. His shoulders sagged, no longer as tense as they’d been a mere moment ago.

Breathe in, breathe out, focus. Breathe in, breathe out, focus.

Those words repeated themselves in his mind over and over again until he was able to think clearly once more. He stood up and pushed himself off from the wall. He looked around the Staging Room for a second time.

There was still no sign of the other members of his party, though this time that made perfect sense. Of course they weren’t here with him. They couldn’t be here with him. They’d been back on the nineteenth floor, which meant the next floor they would need to clear would be the twentieth floor.

While the next floor that Xavier needed to clear was the one hundredth.

Though he no longer felt that deep rage that he had a moment ago, he was still feeling rather disorientated. How could he not be, after all that had just happened?

He read the notification that followed the first.

The System wishes you well.

Xavier blinked.

Those words… they had not been what he was expecting. Not at all. He tilted his head to the side, staring at them. He read them over and over again for a moment, as though thinking he must have gotten them wrong the first time.

The System wished him well?

Xavier had just been thrust forward through the tower floors! And though he wanted to gain solo titles from the floors, and had always fought alone—or tried to fight alone—now the others were gone. Completely. Having their help wasn’t even an option anymore. And his friends hadn’t just been there to help, either. Not in a tangible way, at least. They’d been becoming like family to him. He enjoyed their company. Enjoyed their insights. Liked talking to them and being with them.

For so long he knew they’d been worried he’d move through the tower without them. He always reassured them that he wouldn’t. He supposed they knew that might always not be true—just like deep down he’d known it too. But none of them could have expected something like this to happen, could they?

Who would have known that the System would force it to happen, and so soon after they’d just returned to the tower?

Xavier paced around the Staging Room. There was only one loot box in the centre of the room. Gone were the loot boxes that the other members of his party would have opened.

Only, could he even call them his party anymore if they weren’t allowed to join him on the floors?

They will always be my party, whether I’m fighting beside them or not.

Xavier closed his eyes.

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The one hundredth floor. Eighty floors ahead of where he should have been, and without all the titles he should have gotten for them. But if the System wanted him to be this Weapon the Voice had spoken of, then how much could he truly be missing out on by not getting those titles? If the System thought that Xavier needed to be challenged, rather than needed to gain as many titles as humanly possible… maybe there was something else going on here. Something else that he needed to do to gain power.

Eyes still closed, Xavier stopped pacing.

He turned, looked over at the door to the next floor.

The one hundredth floor.

There was one more notification after the last one he read.

You can no longer gain access to the knowledge others hold about the Tower of Champions’ floors.

He ran a hand through his hair. All the effort Adranial had gone to to get here—the sacrifices that she’d made with her memories… and what, it had all been for nothing?

She wasn’t even allowed to help him anymore?

No one was?

Xavier, for the first time since he’d come to the Tower of Champions, was completely on his own.

He would need to rethink everything. The entire way that he went through the different floors of the Tower of Champions.

He was no longer a powerhouse, mowing through the different floors with ease, optimising exactly how he would defeat each floor to get the best record possible.

Xavier would have to fight as hard as he could for every single floor. Now, he didn’t know how difficult this next floor would be, but if the System had sent him here because it wanted him to be challenged, then that meant it would be a challenge—there was no way that the System itself would send him toward something he could easily complete.

The anger Xavier had bled away through meditation wasn’t completely gone. He could still feel it just below the surface. But now that it was under control there were other things that he could feel too. Fear was one of them. His lifespan had been extended so incredibly far, and would extend even farther. It wasn’t that he hadn’t risked his life in the past… it was just that he hadn’t needed to risk his life in a good little while.

Coming back to the Tower of Champions, he’d felt safe.

Nothing could touch him.

It hadn’t been arrogance or ego, even if it might have looked that way. It had simply been fact.

That had all changed. His life would be at risk the second he stepped through that door.

This is how it’s supposed to be. This is what everyone should feel. Even the elites feel challenged on the different floors.

He tapped his foot on the ground. He felt restless.

He felt… excited.

Xavier Collins was finally going to get the challenge that he was after.

[Xavier? Where are you?]

The voice was Siobhan’s, and though there was clearly worry in her tone, he felt a sense of relief at hearing it.

[I’m in the Staging Room,] he replied through the Communication Stone’s connection, before realising she wouldn’t be able to make sense of that.

[No… I’m in the Staging Room, with Howard and Justin. You aren’t here, and there are only three loot boxes. For a moment, we thought you might be…]

[Dead?] Xavier chuckled. [No. I’m definitely not dead.] He looked at the door to the next floor again. [But there is something the four of us need to talk about.]

Xavier met with his party in the tavern, then he told them exactly what had happened. The looks of shock on their faces were palpable. He was sure that he had looked exactly as they had when he’d discovered what had happened to him.

“That’s insane!” Justin said. “You skipped eighty floors?”

“I don’t know if skipped is the right word,” Siobhan said. “He was taken from them—he didn’t get a choice. Or any titles.” The redheaded woman was staring down at the table, her forehead more deeply crinkled than Xavier had ever seen it. “This isn’t fair, what the System has done to you.”

“It’s not fair,” Howard said. “But life before the System wasn’t fair, and we all knew life with it wasn’t either.”

“Sounds like you aren’t even bothered by this?” Justin said.

Howard shook his head. “Oh, I’m bothered. But… I’m not sure if this is a bad thing, or not.” He glanced up at the ceiling. “Not this specifically, at least. But… it is terrifying, that the System can change the rules so easily. I’d thought the System’s rules were the one thing keeping us all safe—that working inside of them was how we could protect the people we cared about the most.”

“You’re talking about the level restrictions blocking off-worlders from coming to Earth,” Xavier said. He hadn’t even thought of that, but if the System could just change the rules whenever it felt like, what was stopping it from letting stronger Denizens come to Earth?

Wouldn’t that be the struggle the System wished him to experience?

“I don’t think we need to worry about that,” Siobhan said. “At least, not until something like that actually happens.” She nodded at Xavier. “I think we have enough on our plate as it is without inventing dangers.”

“The one hundredth floor?” Justin sighed. “Absolutely insane.”

The tavern was fairly quiet. Only one other party was there. They must have come at a time when other parties were on floors or maybe even sleeping. Xavier wanted to go and talk to Sam about all that had happened, but he wasn’t sure he saw the point.

The System isolated me for a reason. It wants me to figure this out on my own.

“So, what are you going to do?” Justin asked.

Xavier blinked. “What do you mean? I’m going to move forward. Go to the next floor. Exactly like I would have if none of this had happened.”

“You have no idea what you’ll be facing on the other side,” Siobhan said.

Xavier smiled. “No. I don’t have a clue. But that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t go and face it. If the System wants to see me struggle, well, I better go give it what it wants.” Xavier stood up from his chair. “Besides, maybe this will make me even stronger.”

The others didn’t say anything as he left. Xavier walked past Sam. The man’s forehead was deeply lined, much like Siobhan’s had been, and it was clear he’d been listening into the conversation.

He flagged Xavier down, stopping him from exiting the tavern before speaking with him. Xavier headed over to the bar. He wasn’t sure what the man would say, but he was curious to hear it.

Then something occurred to him.

“Your empress… did she see this?” Xavier asked. He wasn’t annoyed that Sam had listened in on their conversation. If Xavier had wanted it to be completely private, he wouldn’t have come down here to have it.

Or, he would have taken precautions, like his Time Alteration spell.

Sam shook his head. “I don’t know. She does not share such things with the likes of me. But… I heard what you said. About being pulled forward through the floors. About… talking to the Voice of the System?”

Xavier leant on the bar. “Have you ever heard of that before? The Voice?”

Sam shook his head. His eyes were wide. “Never. Not even in myths.”

Xavier wondered whether that was because this was a relatively young sector, as it had been purged more than once, or if it was because what had happened to him was so exceedingly rare.

“I just wanted to tell you to be careful.” Sam sighed. “There’s no advice I can give you. Even if I wanted to, the System wouldn’t let me tell you about those floors. Not that I’ve been on them. And you… you’re already more powerful than I imagine I’ll ever be. Just… be careful. Remember that, despite all you’ve accomplished, you are still mortal.”

Xavier nodded at the barkeep.

Still mortal.

Those two simple words put everything into clear perspective for him.

The next floor? It could take his life if he wasn’t careful.